Man kills girlfriend, wounds self, cops say
Greeley – A man fatally shot his girlfriend with a shotgun early Saturday and then shot himself in the chin but survived, police said.
Patricio Baltazar, 42, was taken to Northern Colorado Medical Center and is under investigation for first-degree murder, said police spokeswoman Margie Martinez.
Baltazar and his live-in girlfriend, whose identity was not released, had gone to a bar Friday night and began arguing when they returned to their home at 2140 Fern Ave. in Greeley, Martinez said. Baltazar beat her and shot her to death, Martinez said.
At the time, there was a restraining order preventing him from contacting his girlfriend or using drugs or alcohol, Martinez said.
Baltazar has three drunken- driving convictions and served 90 days in jail in 2003 for possession of illegal drugs. He is serving an 18-month probation term for a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction in September, according to court records.
I-25 to be JFK tribute in southern Colorado
Pueblo – Local and state Democrats have raised money to install signs naming Interstate 25 the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway from Pueblo to the New Mexico line.
The Democrats said their intention was not to match the naming of the highway after Ronald Reagan in Republican- dominated El Paso County.
Rep. Dorothy Butcher, D- Pueblo, said the goal was to honor Kennedy for his 1962 signing of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, which brings water to the Arkansas Valley from western Colorado.
Butcher said taxpayers will not foot the $15,000 bill for the signs. An estimated $11,000 already has been raised in donations for the project.
Man punched in face, called racist names
Boulder – A black man was beaten and called racist names as he walked along a Boulder street early Friday.
The victim told police he was in the 1600 block of Broadway walking with a friend about 1:45 a.m. when a passenger in a passing van yelled a racial epithet.
The van then pulled into a parking lot and a man got out and apologized for the other’s behavior.
Despite the apology, the person who yelled the epithet got out of the van, continued to yell names at the victim and punched him twice in the face, police said.
After the assault, the man and his friends left in the van and the victim was taken to Boulder Community Hospital.
Radar jammers to be illegal starting July 1
Devices that can help drivers get away with speeding soon will be illegal in Colorado.
Beginning July 1, it will be against the law to use or sell radar-jamming devices. Violators face a $1,000 fine and a year in jail. The law is similar to those in Oklahoma, Utah, California, Minnesota, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
There are two types of devices. One bends a radar’s wavelength, making it give no reading or an incorrect reading. The other transmits a signal that overrides an officer’s radar receiver.
“I can’t think why any person would need one of these, unless they want to break the law,” El Paso County sheriff’s Deputy Ray Gerhart said.
He added that without the law, officers had no authority to search a vehicle for the devices.
The new law also could help police stop street racers who use the devices to elude authorities by allowing them to give racers additional fines that average more than $100.
GI killed in Iraq was “a true soldier”
Fort Carson – A soldier killed in Iraq earned his high-school-equivalency degree before joining the Army, then bought his mother a house during an April visit from the field, his mother said Friday.
Spec. Philip C. Edmundson, 22, of Wilson, N.C., died Wednesday when a roadside bomb exploded near his Bradley Fighting Vehicle in Ramadi, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Carson.
He was the son of Robert and Annie Edmundson. He bought the house when he was home on 10 days’ leave in April. “He was really into what he was doing,” Annie Edmundson remembered of her son. “He was a true soldier. He really was. That was something that he chose to do. He was not particularly crazy about Iraq, but who would be?”
Funeral arrangements are incomplete. Annie Edmundson said her son’s body has just arrived at Dover, Del., and is not expected in Wilson for another three to four days.
